Here’s a look back at 10 significant moments since the last federal election and how they could influence the outcome this time around.

Layton’s death — August 22, 2011

Jack Layton was certainly a beloved leader in life, but after his death, he became something of a saint for the New Democrats. There were political advantages to this, such as using his inspiring words of “hope is better than fear” on campaign signage. But Layton’s legacy is a double-edged sword for current NDP leader Thomas Mulcair

For one thing, it’s nearly impossible to compete with a larger-than-life figure. In other words, because of Layton’s tragic death, there is a risk that the electorate has lionized him and as a result misremembers who Layton was as a politician. Layton often supported middle-of-the-road ideas, such as help for seniors and tax breaks for small business. He was not always bold or traditionally left.

Mulcair, on the other hand, has been extremely clear about where he stands on issues leading into this election. He is against Bill C-51; his party would increase taxes on corporations; he would abolish the senate and withdraw the military mission from Syria and Iraq. He has been careful to distinguish the NDP from the Liberals. But, unfortunately for him, the ghost of Layton hovers over him with every statement he makes and is plastered all over NDP campaign materials.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckNDP Leader Jack Layton raises his cane as he takes to the stage in Vancouver, B.C., on June 19, 2011.

Senate expense scandals — November 2012 – still working on it

The Auditor General’s June 2015 report on the senators’ fraudulent claims said it all: “the oversight, accountability, and transparency of Senators’ expenses was quite simply not adequate.” But as we’ve watched the ballad of Mike Duffy play out, and heard Senator Nancy Ruth’s horrid tales of being offered cold Camembert, the question now is: do Canadians still care enough about this to make it an election issue?

According to an Angus-Reid poll conducted in March, about 41 per cent of Canadians would support abolishing the Senate, 45 per cent want it reformed, while only 14 per cent think it should be left as is. The take-away? Canadians do not want the status quo.

Harper could deflect the Senate question on the campaign trail by saying ‘hey, we’re not nuts about those guys either!’ But any government that wants to get rid of the Senate will still require the approval of seven provinces with 50 per cent of the vote, as per the top court’s ruling last year. If Trudeau trots out those Senate reform ideas he’s been promising, there is the potential for this issue to influence the election period.

CANADIAN PRESS/Devaan IngrahamMike Duffy isn't the only one abusing his expense account. Whole swaths of the hospitality industry would struggle if government and corporate accounts went away.

Canada-China trade agreement — Sept. 9, 2012

The Harper administration faced heavy criticism over signing an investment treaty with China back in 2012 called the Canada–China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA). At the time, Harper very publicly scolded former Chinese president Hu Jintao over his leadership and delayed ratifying the deal for two years, citing allegations of Beijing’s cyber spying.

Even after the treaty was ratified in 2014, the treaty was widely criticized. This was primarily because the Harper government gave Chinese investors access to Canada’s economy, but didn’t get the same rights in return. As Financial Post columnist Diane Francis put it: “[the Conservatives] have demonstrated the worst negotiating skills since Neville Chamberlain. Ottawa capitulated to China on everything.”

So what does this mean for the election? Despite the benefits of doing business with the powerful Chinese economy, there are still voters who are suspicious of Chinese investment. The Asia Pacific Foundation just released new numbers showing a vast overestimation of Chinese foreign direct investment in Canada, suggesting it accounted for 25 per cent of inflows, when it’s actually closer to 3 per cent.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldCanadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks with Chinese President Hu Jintao following a signing ceremony at the APEC Summit in Vladivostok, Sunday September 9, 2012.

Trudeau’s ascent April 14, 2013 (depends on whom you ask)

When Justin Trudeau won the Liberal leadership race in 2013, the hopes for him to rebuild the party were high – and the polls at the time reflected those expectations. In the week leading up to his victory, a Forum Poll for the National Post found the Liberals would win a clear majority with Trudeau as its figurehead, with 33 per cent of the vote, compared to 29 per cent for the Tories and 25 per cent for the NDP.

After the glow of his victory faded, Trudeau faced criticism for vague policy statements and gaffes, including the time he admired the virtues of China’s dictatorship during a ‘ladies only’ fundraiser in Toronto. Trudeau’s critics are now asking if he has what it takes to lead the country. And once again, the mood around Trudeau is reflected in the polls. A recent Ipsos poll ranked Trudeau in third place with 25 per cent of the public’s support nationally, compared to 34 per cent for NDP and 33 per cent for the Tories.

In response, Trudeau has made serious efforts to show that he is ready. He responded to criticisms of vagueness with his ‘32-Point Plan for Real Change’ released in June. The plan includes concrete suggestions that counter Conservative decisions, including saving home mail delivery, reinstating the long-form census and unmuzzling government scientists. In addition, Trudeau pledged that the upcoming election would be the last using the first-past-the-post voting system if he were to be elected. It’s important to remember Trudeau’s early stretch leading the polls – it could happen again.

Justin Tang / The Canadian PressLiberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau speaks during the 2013 Liberal Leadership National Showcase in Toronto on Saturday.

Harper’s Shrinking Inner Circle (2013 – 2015)

Stephen Harper’s inner circle that led him to victory in the last election is looking much smaller today. Former Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty and Harper’s former campaign manager, Senator Doug Finley, have both died since the last election. Flaherty was known for challenging Harper on ideas he opposed and was an asset for that very reason.

So when John Baird offered his resignation as Minister of Foreign Affairs in February, it was a big blow to team Harper. With over 20 years experience in the game, Baird was one of the prime minister’s most trusted cabinet members and was a key player in fighting the war against ISIL and preparing for the next election.

Similarly, Peter MacKay’s recent decision to leave federal politics will make the election all the more difficult for Harper. As Federal Justice Minister, MacKay was a solid advisor for the prime minister. The loss is compounded by the fact that MacKay comes from a political dynasty in Nova Scotia. The Conservatives were struggling to hold on to the 13 ridings they have in Atlantic Canada and MacKay’s exit certainly won’t help them there.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldFormer federal cabinet minister John Baird

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — February 2014

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was in Ottawa a few weeks ago to meet with Stephen Harper and finalize a trade deal. For political strategists, it should come as no surprise that a photo-op with a Yatsenyuk was a smart move for Harper ahead of the election period – there is a strong Ukrainian diaspora community here in Canada, but leaked campaign documents from the 2011 election have critics suggesting that the Tories’ entire foreign policy approach to Ukraine is about courting the 1.2 million voters in Canada who identify as Ukrainian.

In fact, the Conservatives have used Russia’s activities in Ukraine to paint a picture of Justin Trudeau as a leader who is ill prepared to handle foreign policy (Trudeau apologized last year for a joke that appeared to make light of the invasion).

Canadian military support and condemnation of Russia’s invasion are important foreign policy topics, but how these issues are presented by the party leaders could influence the vote in several ridings, such as Saskatchewan’s Yorkton-Melville, where the Ukrainian population is 27.9 per cent.

The rapid fall of oil has been overwhelmingly negative for the Canadian economy.
In the summer of 2014, world crude prices were at US$100 per barrel and have since fallen to about $50 per barrel today.

Rhys Mendes, economist for the Bank of Canada, explained that the effects are not always immediately apparent. “The energy price decline will reduce aggregate income. Indeed, even though real GDP grew by 2.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014, the real incomes of Canadians contracted,” Mendes said in an interview with the Financial Post. “This occurred because the world price of an important export product declined. And that means a loss of purchasing power for Canadians.”

So economically, it’s mostly bad. But politically, there is the potential for this downturn to shake up the election. It’s no secret that Harper has put time and effort into Alberta’s oil sands. With jobs declining in Alberta, the disenchanted could seek a change of pace with another party.

Moving east, low oil prices and a low Canadian dollar could stand to benefit Ontario as the combination of these two things means Canadian products are more competitive in the U.S. Given that Ontario is home to key battleground ridings, this issue stands to influence the election.

On Oct. 20 of last year, a Muslim terrorist deliberately rammed his car into a pair of Canadian soldiers in Quebec, leaving one of them dead. As the country mourned the tragedy, Ottawa was hit with another attack on Parliament Hill. In the aftermath of the second attack, which killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, the atmosphere in the House of Commons shifted. In an unusual display of emotion, Harper crossed the floor and hugged Trudeau and Mulcair.

Once than moment of solidarity passed, it became clear that all three major parties had conflicting positions on Canada’s role in the fight against the Islamic State. The Tories have put forward Bill C-51, which Mulcair strongly opposes and Trudeau hasn’t completely rejected.

While foreign affairs are not usually something Canadians vote on, these attacks made the war against ISIL a potential domestic security issue. Many observers, such as Brian-Lee Crowley of the national public policy think tank Macdonald-Laurier Institute, say that voter reaction to all of this could alter election results.

“If people choose a narrative that fits in with their existing political prejudices, it will leave everything as it was,” Crowley explained in an interview last year with the National Post. “If on the other hand these events shake people out of their previous commitments, for one reason or another, it will have a very powerful effect.”

Handout/The Canadian PressParliament Hill shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, photographed as his attack was about to begin.

Kathleen Wynne’s agenda — February 2015 – present

Kathleen Wynne’s election as premier of Ontario was a time of excitement for the provincial Liberals. After the many mishaps of Dalton McGuinty’s government, including the cancelled gas plants and the Ornge scandal, Wynne seemed like a refreshing change for the party. After a few months in the job, however, Wynne started to face public criticism over her agenda. The new sex-ed curriculum put forward by Wynne’s government has been widely protested in the province and according to the province’s own polling, 60 per cent of Ontarians do not like her plan to privatize Hydro One.

This is a problem for Justin Trudeau.

If Ontarians in key federal ridings are concerned over what their kid will learn in school or how their hydro bill might change, Trudeau suffers. With no way of marking their distaste for Wynne’s policies just yet, voters could seize the opportunity to vote against the Liberal party in the federal election. And the Tories know this. Just look at what Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre tweeted about Ontario’s plan for public pensions: “We will not help Trudeau & Wynne impose their dangerous scheme to take money from workers & their families, kill jobs & damage the economy.”

For their part, the provincial Liberals have loudly voiced their problems with Harper in the days before the election call. Finance Minister Charles Sousa and Associate Finance Minister Mitzie Hunter accused the Harper government of making the new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan expensive to implement on purpose. Sousa went as far as to say Harper is “slapping the face of Ontarians” with this move.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld/FilesKathleen Wynnesays it would be premature to set up LCBO Express Stores before the wider issue of liquor distribution has been decided.

The election of Rachel Notley — May 5, 2015

The NDP party and observers alike are making much ado of the ‘Notley effect’. Rachel Notley’s May election toppled the 43-year-old reign of the Tories in Alberta and gave rise to an epic Orange Wave. The question for the federal election is whether or not Notley’s refreshing style will boost support for Mulcair nationally.

The concentration of NDP support in Edmonton distorts the overall numbers, meaning that the Tories could still be competitive at the provincial level. If the Tories do well at the federal level in Alberta, there is still potential for Notley’s win to have a ripple effect in other provinces.

Earlier this month, Mulcair said he would borrow a few pages for Notley’s playbook, meaning he will present very specific ideas, such as raising the minimum wage for federal employees to $15. By doing this, Mulcair is aligning himself with Notley in the public eye and he is repeating what worked in Alberta.

The realities of a difficult job market could be contributing to the end of Notley’s honeymoon phase – a recent Mainstreet/Postmedia poll showed her drop 12 percentage points – but this is just one poll. There is plenty of campaigning time to see how Mulcair will play Notley’s victory to his advantage.

Nathan Denette/ The Canadian PressThe next election is still four years away, so excuse Premier Notley if she's not yet overly concerned about the polls.

Justin Trudeau kicked off his election campaign in Vancouver by promising to fight for the middle class, while cutting perks for the richest Canadians.

“When the middle class does well, so does the entire country,” the Liberal leader told a crowd of reporters and supporters Sunday.

Just hours after Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked for the dissolution of Parliament to touch off an 11-week election campaign, Trudeau charged that the Conservative leader has failed his country.

“We are working harder and harder to make ends meet, but falling further and further behind. Those few who have done well have done very, very well, but for the middle class, and those hoping to join it, the truth is that folks today are more likely to fall out of the middle class than they are to join it,” Trudeau said.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckLiberal Leader Justin Trudeau speaks during his election campaign launch in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday August 2, 2015.

His plan to reverse that trend hinges on cutting off the universal child care benefit for “millionaires” and raising taxes on the wealthiest Canadians.

“After all, they’ve had a pretty good 10 years,” he joked.

His party’s economic plan would leave nine out of 10 Canadians in better financial shape than they would be under either the Conservatives or the NDP, Trudeau claimed.

“A family with two kids, making $90,000 a year, will get $2,500 more, tax free. Low-income families will see 315,000 kids lifted out of poverty,” he promised.

Trudeau also took aim at New Democrat leader Tom Mulcair’s economic plan.

“The NDP’s other answer to everything is to make the company you work for pay more in taxes. That means fewer jobs and less investment, all while our economy is stalled,” he said.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckLiberal Leader Justin Trudeau is flanked by local candidates and supporters as speaks during his election campaign launch in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday August 2, 2015. A federal election will be held on October 19.

Trudeau was the last major party leader to speak after the election writ was dropped, but he said it was important to him to keep his promise and catch his flight to Vancouver to march in the Pride parade.

Playing to local ego, Trudeau called Vancouver his “second home” and promised that “B.C. matters, like every corner of the country.”

Mulcair had planned to make an appearance at the Vancouver Pride parade as well, but that visit was cancelled Saturday as it became clear the writ was about to be dropped.

Constance Barnes, the NDP candidate for Vancouver Centre, announced the news in a Facebook post: “This means one thing for me — we’ve got to step it up to fill his absence. That means we need to dance and party harder than we ever have.”

Mulcair chose to kick off his campaign in Gatineau, Que. instead, promising to prioritize affordable childcare.

On everything from protecting and restoring the environment and providing fair treatment to Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples to creating jobs and doing away with political corruption, the NDP is a better choice than the Conservatives, Mulcair said.

Despite his emphasis on the differences between his party and the Tories, however, Mulcair took his cues from Harper’s famously close-mouthed media strategy, refusing to take questions from reporters at his campaign launch.

Harper, on the other hand, was more open as he announced the beginning of the campaign in Ottawa. He was peppered with questions from the media about why he wanted to subject Canadians to such a long, costly election season, answering that his opponents were already campaigning on the public dime.

With files from the Canadian Press

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http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/all-three-main-parties-have-shot-at-forming-government-as-harper-kicks-off-election-campaign#commentsSun, 02 Aug 2015 21:47:22 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=847184

OTTAWA — Canada faces a “critical decision” about its best way forward, Stephen Harper said Sunday as he triggered what promises to be one of the longest, most expensive and most bitterly fought election battles in the country’s political history.

“Canadians will make a critical decision about the direction of our country, a decision with real consequences, a decision about who has the proven experience today to keep our economy strong and our country safe,” Harper said.

Canadians will make a critical decision about the direction of our country, a decision with real consequences, a decision about who has the proven experience today to keep our economy strong and our country safe

“I will be asking Canadians for their support to continue to deliver sound economic management and to take the difficult decisions necessary to protect our country’s security.”

A national election “is not a popularity contest,” he added — presumably a reference to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who now has just 11 weeks to silence those critics who have long accused him of being more sizzle than steak.

Heading into the campaign, the Conservatives find themselves lagging behind Tom Mulcair and the NDP in the polls, with the Liberals running third. But make no mistake: for the first time since anyone can remember, all three main parties have a legitimate shot at forming a government after Oct. 19.

Across the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Que., with the emblematic Peace Tower looming in the distance, Mulcair called for change on Parliament Hill after nearly a decade of Conservative rule.

“Wages are falling, incomes are stagnant and household debt is skyrocketing … middle class families are working harder than ever but can’t get ahead,” Mulcair said.

“The economy has shrunk in each of the last five months and many are claiming that Canada is already in another recession … clearly, Mr. Harper, your plan isn’t working.”

In Vancouver, Trudeau accused the Conservatives of planning to grow the economy by making “wealthy people wealthier.” The election, he said, is about which party can give middle class Canadians a real and fair chance to succeed.

In addition to being the longest campaign in more than a century, it promises to be the costliest ever, with taxpayers contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to help Elections Canada oversee the vote, and rebates to the parties for every dollar they spend.

Combined, the parties could spend more than $53 million on their national campaigns, and candidates on average about $214,000 — more money than they’ve ever been allowed to spend before.

The increase in spending limits — up from about $25 million for parties and $101,000 on average for candidates — is a result of the Conservative government’s Fair Elections Act, which upped the spending limits for every day a campaign runs beyond the traditional campaign period of 37 days.

Harper said he called the campaign earlier than usual because his rivals were already campaigning, and doing it on the public dime.

It’s important, he said, “that the money come from the parties themselves, not from the government resources, parliamentary resources or taxpayer resources.”

He also acknowledged that his party was on the best financial footing to run an extended campaign, sitting on significantly more cash than the NDP, Liberals, Greens or Bloc Quebecois.

“In terms of the advantages this party has, in terms of the fact that we are a better financed political party, a better organized political party and better supported by Canadians, those advantages exist whether we call this campaign or not,” he said.

“What we do by calling this campaign is making sure we are all operating within the rules and not using taxpayers’ money directly.”

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangConservative Leader Stephen Harper's bus sits ready on Parliament Hill on the first day of an election campaign in Ottawa on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May, speaking in Sidney, B.C., chastised Harper for setting up an unfair system that would cost taxpayers “tens of millions of dollars” and give the Tories an unfair advantage.

Canadians “deserve MPs who put Parliament ahead of party” and can set aside “hyper-partisanship for citizenship,” May said.

Harper stands to become the first prime minister since Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1908 to win four consecutive elections.

Those advantages exist whether we call this campaign or not

His party has used its bulging war chest to deliver attack ads against Trudeau for months, including ever-present radio and TV spots that describe the Liberal leader as “just not ready” to be prime minister. Liberal insiders admit they’ve been effective, contributing to the Liberals’ slow decline in the polls to third place from their front-running status over the previous two years.

NDP insiders have also suggested they were happy for Harper to focus on Trudeau, hoping it would push voters to the official Opposition, which has set its sights on improving on its breakthrough electoral performance in 2011.

Late Friday, the Conservatives suddenly turned their sights on Mulcair with similar attack ads depicting him as an unethical, opportunistic “career politician.” Having helped drive Liberal support to the NDP, they’ve now evidently decided they need to blunt Mulcair’s momentum as well.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is wasting no time in plunging into the federal election campaign, challenging Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s early election call.

Wynne plans to campaign hard for the federal Liberals and leader Justin Trudeau, just a year after her party won an unexpected majority government in Ontario. Never one to shy away from confrontation with Harper, Wynne lambasted his decision to kickstart an 11-week campaign on the Sunday of a long weekend.

Nathan Denette/THE CANADIAN PRESSOntario Premiere Kathleen Wynne, left, along with federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau greet supporters as they take part in a rally during a campaign stop during the 2014 Ontario election.

“It was an unnecessarily early call, it will be an unnecessarily early election. It’s unusually long,” Wynne said in an interview. She called Harper’s election move a “cynical play” to buy votes: “Underlying the call, what really concerns me, is that Stephen Harper thinks Canadians can be bought. That’s the reason he can do this: because he can spend a lot more money… and he believes that will win him the election.”

“He believes a longer election campaign and more money will buy him Canadians’ vote and I think that’s a cynical view of the democratic process,” the premier said, adding the longer campaign also means taxpayers will be on the hook for millions more in transfers to political parties.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangPrime Minister Stephen Harper holds a press conference after visiting Governor General David Johnston to dissolve parliament and trigger an election campaign at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Sunday, August 2, 2015.

Harper defended his earlier-than-required trip to Governor General David Johnston on Sunday as necessary to ensure spending limits and transparency are in place. He said his rivals are already in campaign mode, so an official writ period ensures no one uses government or parliamentary resources on the trail.

The early call also prevents third party advertisers from spending millions in the lead up to the vote. During the 11-week campaign they can only spend around $400,000.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckLiberal Leader Justin Trudeau speaks during his election campaign launch in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday August 2, 2015. A federal election will be held on October 19.

Trudeau enters the race running third but within striking distance in many polls. Seat-rich Ontario, which got 15 of the 30 new seats in play in this election, will be a key battleground, and Wynne is already pitching a Trudeau government as friendlier to Ontarians.

“At the end of the day what we need is a prime minister who will work with the people of Ontario and not oppose them as Prime Minister Stephen Harper has done,” she said, citing the federal government’s refusal to help implement the province’s new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.

The campaign will change a lot

Now that the writs are being drawn up, Wynne also said she expects the federal party’s chances to improve as the race, its leaders and their ideas draw more attention.

“The campaign will change a lot,” she said.

But the Ontario Liberals support could also bite the federal parties, as some have already suggested. The new sex ed curriculum and the planned sale of 60 per cent of Hydro One are two provincial policies some say could bleed into the federal campaign. But Wynne said the updated curriculum — which hadn’t been touched since 1998 — was necessary and something the federal party supports.

“I know that we will have full support of federal Liberal candidates on that one,” she said.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick DoyleNDP Leader Tom Mulcair launches his campaign at the Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., after Prime Minister Stephen Harper called an election on Sunday, August 2, 2015.

NDP leader Thomas Mulcair enters the race with a recent surge in the polls and with many wondering if he will form his party’s first federal government. But to do so, he needs to break through in Ontario, where the provincial party enjoyed a recent boost in the polls off of the New Democrats’ win in Alberta and opposition to the Hydro One sale.

Wynne also said she still plans to call Wednesday a provincial byelection in Simcoe North, where Garfield Dunlop resigned his seat so new PC leader Patrick Brown could seek a place in the legislature.

NDP Tom Mulcair leader kicked off his party’s election campaign — the “Campaign for Change” — across the river from Parliament Hill Sunday morning just moments after his Conservative rival asked Governor General David Johnson to dissolve Parliament.

“I believe that governing is about priorities,” Mulcair said from an outdoor balcony in Gatineau, Que., overlooking the Ottawa River, the iconic Peace Tower looming in the distance.

“As you’ve all heard, it sounds like Stephen Harper is going to drop the writ very shortly. Sadly, this means that Tom Mulcair can no longer attend Pride tomorrow. As the Vancouver Centre candidate this means one thing for me – we’ve got to step it up to fill his absence. That means we need to dance and party harder than we ever have.”

Mulcair, who did not mention Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau during his Ottawa speech, also took aim at Harper on the economy. The party’s “number 1 priority” will be to “kick-start the economy and get Canadians back to work,” he said.

Trudeau was in the air on his way to Vancouver when Harper made his visit to the Governor-General.

Trudeau is scheduled to make a campaign appearance in Vancouver today and later take part in the Pride Parade. About 650,00 people are expected at Pride.

In 2011, New Democrats achieved historic electoral success, thanks largely to gains made in Quebec under the leadership of Mulcair’s predecessor, Jack Layton.

Political observers say the NDP’s greatest challenge will be to translate its current levels of support into more seats in the House of Commons.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he has asked Governor General David Johnston to dissolve Parliament, touching off an 11-week campaign in advance of an election Oct. 19.

Harper made the announcement today outside Rideau Hall, square in the middle of the August holiday weekend, ending months of speculation and conjecture about when the campaign would begin.

He was quickly peppered with media questions about why he was subjecting Canadians to a campaign that promises to be the longest in more than a century and the costliest in the country’s political history.

Simple, Harper replied: Conservative rivals are already campaigning, and they’re doing it on the public dime.

“If we’re going to begin our campaigns and run our campaigns, that those campaigns need to be conducted under the rules of the law, that the money come from the parties themselves, not from the government resources, parliamentary resources or taxpayer resources,” he said.

“In terms of the advantages this party has, in terms of the fact that we are a better financed political party, a better organized political party and better supported by Canadians, those advantages exist whether we call this campaign or not.

“What we do by calling this campaign is making sure we are all operating within the rules and not using taxpayers’ money directly.”

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair was scheduled to launch his party’s campaign moments after Harper’s event; Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is scheduled to make a statement later in Vancouver, where he is attending that city’s Pride parade.

Harper stands to become the first prime minister since Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1908 to win four consecutive elections.

The very rarity of that feat goes a long way towards explaining his real reasons for choosing to formally call Canada’s 42nd election in the middle of a holiday weekend in the dead of summer, triggering a gruelling, 11-week marathon rather than the five-week sprint that’s typified federal campaigns in recent times.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangPrime Minister Stephen Harper visits Governor General David Johnston, along with his wife Laureen, to dissolve parliament and trigger an election campaign at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Sunday, August 2, 2015.

The unusually long campaign activates an obscure provision in the Harper government’s overhaul of election laws last year, allowing parties and their candidates to spend more than double the spending limits of $25 million and $100,000, respectively, that would have applied for a minimum 37-day campaign.

Having amassed vastly more money than any other party, the increased spending limits give the Conservative party and its candidates a huge advantage over their more impoverished rivals.

It’s been clear for weeks how the ruling party intends to use its financial advantage: to carpet bomb the air waves with attack ads.

Conservative ads trashing Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau as “just not ready” to be prime minister have been ever-present on radio and television for more than two months already. Liberal insiders admit they’ve been effective, contributing to the Liberals’ slow decline in the polls to third place from their front-running status over the previous two years.

“A national election is not a popularity contest,” Harper said. “This election will determine who is in the best position to make the right decisions to ensure the safety and security of this country.”

What we do by calling this campaign is making sure we are all operating within the rules and not using taxpayers’ money directly

Late Friday, the Conservatives suddenly turned their sights on NDP Leader Tom Mulcair with similar attack ads depicting him as an unethical, opportunistic “career politician.” Having helped drive Liberal support to the NDP, they’ve now evidently decided they need to blunt Mulcair’s momentum at the outset of the campaign.

The shifting targets of the Tory ads reflect the tricky two-front war facing the governing party.

At a time when the economy has tanked and polls suggest two-thirds of the electorate are looking for a change, the Conservatives risk driving change seekers to coalesce behind the NDP if they attack the Liberals too hard, and vice versa. They’ll attempt to strike a balance, attacking both and warning that the economy is too fragile to risk putting it in the spendthrift hands of either Mulcair or Trudeau.

But Mulcair and Trudeau also face two-front wars — with each other as much as with Harper. Each will be attempting to prove that his party is the vehicle that can defeat the Conservatives and provide real change. And in doing so, they’ll be fighting not just to win the election but, potentially, for the very survival of their respective parties.

Should Harper win a minority, the two opposition parties will come under pressure to form a coalition to snatch power from him. Should he win another majority, they’ll come under pressure to merge outright and stop splitting the progressive vote.

In either scenario, the opposition party that emerges strongest on Oct. 19 will have the upper hand; the weaker party could face possible extinction.

CAIRO — An Egyptian court postponed announcing a verdict in the much criticized case of Mohamed Fahmy once again on Sunday — a move the Canadian journalist described as “crippling.”

The delaying of the verdict to Aug. 29 marks the latest of several postponements in the long-running legal saga that has been denounced by press freedom advocates and human rights activists.

“It’s crippling our lives,” a frustrated Fahmy said of the postponement.

Fahmy spent more than a year in prison before a successful appeal of an earlier conviction resulted in his current retrial.

I know he’s suffering very much, and not able to sleep well, or eat well

The 41-year-old’s troubles began in December 2013 when he was working as the Cairo bureau chief for Qatar-based satellite news broadcaster Al Jazeera English.

Fahmy, Australian journalist Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohammed were detained and charged with a slew of offences, including supporting the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, a banned organization affiliated with ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, and with fabricating footage to undermine the country’s national security.

After a trial which was decried as a sham, they were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms before their appeal led to a fresh trial being ordered.

Greste was suddenly allowed to leave Egypt before their retrial began, under a law which allows for the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of crimes.

Fahmy gave up his dual Egyptian citizenship while behind bars in the hopes that he could follow the same path, but that didn’t happen. He was, however, granted bail in February shortly after his second trial got underway.

Fahmy’s brother, Adel, told The Canadian Press from Cairo that Sunday’s latest postponement of the verdict has added to the suffering of not only his brother, but the entire family.

“I know he’s suffering very much, and not able to sleep well, or eat well. And now he has a teaching job at UBC in British Columbia starting in September and you know his whole life, and ours, has been crippled,” he said.

Adel Fahmy said no official reason was given for the postponement — that the judge who usually presides over the case didn’t show up and that another judge came in and simply announced, without explanation, that the verdict had again been delayed.

Fahmy’s high-profile lawyer Amal Clooney noted that the postponement of Fahmy’s verdict now meant it would be delivered after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wrapped a visit to Egypt, and after the country celebrated the opening of a new Suez Canal waterway

“The verdict may be coming later; but the world will still be watching,” she said. “In a case where even Egypt’s Supreme Court (and the Supreme Court prosecutor) have admitted that there is no evidence to support the charges, the only just conclusion that can be reached by the judges is a full acquittal.”

If Fahmy wasn’t acquitted, Clooney said Egypt’s president must “promptly intervene to rectify this injustice.”

Throughout the proceedings Fahmy has pointed out that his case had been complicated by politics in the Middle East, referring to himself as a “pawn” in a rift between Egypt and Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera.

Egypt and Qatar have had tense relations since 2013, when the Egyptian military ousted Morsi amid massive protests.

Qatar is a strong backer of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and Cairo accuses Al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece for Morsi’s supporters — charges denied by the broadcaster.

The Canadian government has said it has raised Fahmy’s case with Egyptian officials “at the highest level” and called for his immediate return to Canada ahead of Thursday’s verdict.

Fahmy moved to Canada with his family in 1991, living in Montreal and Vancouver for years before eventually moving abroad for work, which included covering stories for the New York Times and CNN.

A hitchhiking robot that captured the hearts of fans worldwide met its demise in the U.S.

The Canadian researchers who created HitchBOT as a social experiment told The Associated Press that someone in Philadelphia damaged the robot beyond repair early Saturday, ending its first American tour after about two weeks.

“Sadly, sadly it’s come to an end,” said Frauke Zeller, one of its co-creators.

The kid-size robot set out to travel cross-country after successfully hitchhiking across Canada in 26 days last year and parts of Europe. It’s immobile on its own, relying on the kindness of strangers. Those who picked it up often passed it to other travellers or left it where others might notice it.

It started in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on July 17 with its thumb raised skyward, a grin on its digital face and tape wrapped around its cylindrical head that read “San Francisco or bust.”

The robot bounced around the Boston area and was briefly taken to sea. One day, it took in a Red Sox game, checking off one of the items on the bucket list created for it. But HitchBOT never made it off the East Coast.

The creators were sent an image of the vandalized robot Saturday but couldn’t track its location because the battery is dead. They said they don’t know who destroyed it or why.

The robot was designed to be a talking travel companion and could toss out factoids and carry limited conversation. A GPS in the robot tracked its location, and a camera randomly snapped photos about every 20 minutes to document its travels.

During past travels, the robot attended a comic convention and a wedding, and it had its portrait painted in the Netherlands. It once spent a week with a heavy metal band.

With the robot destroyed, Zeller said, she was most concerned about children who loved HitchBOT and followed it on social media. Her team doesn’t plan to release the last photo of it to protect young fans who might be distraught.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad HipolitoHitchbot has tea at the Empress hotel following it's arrival by canoe during a traditional Coast Salish welcome at the inner harbour in Victoria, B.C., on Monday, August 18, 2014.

Here’s the official transcript of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s remarks:

Good Morning.

A few minutes ago, I met with his excellency, the Governor General, and he has agreed to my request that Parliament be dissolved.

In accordance with our commitment to a fixed election date, the next general election will be held as prescribed by law.

As it is my intention to begin campaign-related activities, as is also the case for the other party leaders, it is important that these campaigns be funded by the parties themselves rather than taxpayers.

It is also appropriate that Canadians have the time to consider the alternatives before them, because this is an election about leadership on the big issues, the issues that affect us all: our economy, and our nation’s security.

It is an election about who will protect our economy, in a period of ongoing global instability, and secure Canada’s future prosperity.

And it is an election about who is best-equipped to make the tough calls to keep our country safe.

A national election is not a popularity contest.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangPrime Minister Stephen Harper holds a press conference after visiting Governor General David Johnston to dissolve parliament and trigger an election campaign at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Sunday, August 2, 2015.

On October 19th, Canadians will make a serious choice, between proven, real-world experience and a dangerous approach that has failed before and is failing in other countries.

And we have lowered taxes for hard-working Canadians, and delivered significant new benefits directly to Canadian families.

Now is not the time for the kinds of hazardous economic schemes that are doing so much damage elsewhere in the world.

Now is most certainly not the time for higher taxes, reckless spending and permanent deficits.

Now is the time to stay on track.

Now is the time to stick to our plan.

This election is also about our security, not merely our security against the normal risks of criminal behaviour, but our security

against the growing threats of an increasingly dangerous world.

The rise of the so-called Islamic State in the Middle East has done more than just create an urgent and horrific crisis in that part of the world.

It has also fuelled the violent, global jihadist movement that poses a direct threat to our friends and allies, and to us here at home.

Jihadi terrorists have declared war on Canada and Canadians by name,â¦ and last October violent attacks were carried out on our soil.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and ongoing military aggression continues to threaten the peace and stability won at great price by previous generations.

Our government has taken decisive action in response to these threats.

We’ve strengthened our legislation to give our security and law enforcement agencies the modern tools necessary to keep us safe.

We are part of the broad international military coalition, led by President Obama, against the Islamic State.

Day in and day out, the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces do us proud by taking the fight to the terrorists who seek to harm us.

And our government has been out front in the world’s response against Russian aggression and for the right of peaceful and democratic countries, like Ukraine, to choose their own future.

I am proud that, today, Canada takes stands in the world in defence of freedom, peace, and human dignity.

Now is not the time for political correctness, inexperienced governance or an ideological unwillingness to act.

Now is the time to face those who threaten us with moral clarity, strength, and resolve.

We Canadians are truly blessed to live in the best country in the world.

In less than two years we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada’s birth as a united country.

But before this significant moment in our history, Canadians will make a critical decision about the direction of our country. A decision with real consequences, a decision about who has the proven experience today to keep our economy strong and our country safe.

I will be asking Canadians for their support to continue to deliver sound economic management, and to take the difficult decisions necessary to protect our country’s security.

Over the coming weeks I look forward to meeting Canadians from coast to coast to coast as we lay out the next steps in our plan.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/read-transcript-of-stephen-harpers-remarks-after-parliament-dissolved/feed0]]>stdStephen HarperTHE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangEverything you need to know about the parties’ platforms, from taxes and terrorism to the environmenthttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-parties-platforms
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Here’s your guide to the four main parties’ record and pledges as the campaign begins:

ECONOMY, TAXES AND POCKETBOOK ISSUES

Conservatives:

– Introduced a “family tax cut” that allows couples with children under age 18 to split up to $50,000 of income; caps non-refundable benefit at $2,000.

– Raise corporate taxes over four years from the current level of 15 per cent to 19 per cent.

– Work with provinces to increase taxes on tobacco and alcohol.

SECURITY AND TERRORISM:

The Conservatives have:

– Committed Canada to a military mission against ISIL, sending CF-18 fighter jets to Iraq and Syria.

– Passed Bill C-51, with broad new powers to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to expand surveillance and actively disrupt threats to national security. The bill makes it illegal to promote terrorism; lowers the legal threshold required for police to arrest and detain suspected extremists without charge; and allows more than 100 government entities to exchange Canadians’ confidential information if it is “relevant” to a potential or suspected national security threat.

– Committed $292 million over five years to help RCMP, CSIS and the Canada Border Services Agency combat terrorism.

– Created a new parliamentary police force by integrating the former, separate House and Senate security staffs into the Parliamentary Protective Service, while also committing $39 million in additional funding for operational security measures in the Parliamentary precinct.

The NDP promises to:

– End the bombing campaign and pull out all military personnel from Iraq and Syria; boost humanitarian aid to help refugees affected by ISIL as well as investigate and prosecute war crimes.

– Repeal Bill C-51, the anti-terrorism act.

– Provide more independent review of Canada’s national security agencies.

– Support a counter-radicalization program.

The Liberals promise to:

– End the bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria but keep military trainers in Iraq and boost humanitarian aid to help refugees; allow more refugees into the country from Iraq and Syria.

– Make amendments to anti-terrorism Bill C-51 by: limiting the sharing of personal data to 17 government departments and agencies with national security responsibilities; eliminating CSIS’s new power to obtain court warrants to break the law in some cases to disrupt suspected terrorists; adding a three-year sunset provisions on some parts of the law and mandatory parliamentary reviews of the extraordinary security measures.

– Create an all-party national security oversight committee to oversee the 17 government departments and agencies with national security responsibilities.

– Ensure responses to terrorism are carried out within a framework consistent with international law.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT:

The Conservatives have:

– Approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline that would run from Alberta to the coast of Kitimat, B.C.; support the proposed TransCanada Energy East project, a west-to-east oil pipeline from Alberta to New Brunswick; support proposed TransCanada Keystone XL oilsands pipeline from Alberta to U.S. Gulf Coast.

– Work with the provinces to ensure no new coal-fired electrical generation plants are built in Canada.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT:

The Conservatives promise:

– $5.3 billion a year, on average, for provincial and municipal infrastructure under the New Building Canada Plan.

– A New Public Transit Fund committing the federal government to spend $250 million in 2017, $500 million in 2018 and $1 billion a year after 2019.

– $150 million for Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program to fund community and cultural infrastructure projects across the country as a way to celebrate Canada’s sesquicentennial in 2017.

The NDP promises to:

– Dedicate an additional one cent of the existing 10-cents-per-litre federal gas tax to roads, bridges and other core infrastructure, reaching an additional $1.5-billion annually by the end of an NDP government’s first mandate, on top of almost $2.2 billion in existing annual gas tax transfers to municipalities.

– Develop a better transit plan with the provinces and territories and invest $1.3 billion annually over next 20 years for predictable and stable public transit funding for municipalities.

The Liberals promise to:

– Boost infrastructure funding through “alternative sources of capital” such as having large pension funds invest in major infrastructure projects in urban and rural communities.

– Provide $65 million over four years, starting in 2016–17, to business and industry associations to allow them to work with post-secondary institutions to better align curricula with needs of employers.

The NDP promises to:

– Restore the six-per-cent annual increase to health-care transfers to the provinces.

– Restore door-to-door home mail delivery by Canada Post for households that lost it under Conservative government.

– Reinstate the mandatory long-form census, which the government replaced with the voluntary National Household Survey.

The Liberals promise to:

– Strengthen the federal government’s role in safeguarding the national health-care system; meet with the premiers on how to improve the system in areas such as wait times, affordability of prescription drugs, and availability of homecare.

– Restore door-to-door home mail delivery by Canada Post.

– Reinstate the long-form census and make Statistics Canada independent.

– Develop a Youth Community and Environment Service Corps that will provide federal minimum wage employment for 40,000 youth aged 18-25 every year for four years, at cost of $1.25 billion a year; $4,000 tuition credit awarded to each participant, at the successful completion of each year-long program, that can be applied to further education and training.

DEMOCRATIC REFORM AND GOVERNANCE:

The Conservatives promise to:

– Place a moratorium on new Senate appointments in an effort to pressure the provinces to accept reforms to the upper chamber or abolish it.

– Introduce legislation that would require Canadians’ approval in national referendum before first-past-the-post electoral system could be changed.

The NDP promises to:

– Replace the current first-past-the-post electoral system with a mixed member proportional system, which combines proportional representation of parties in House of Commons with direct election of MP in each riding.

– Eliminate first-past-the-post system, and consult the public on the style of proportional representation best suited to Canada.

– End whipped votes in the House of Commons.

– Discourage patronage appointments by establishing an independent agency for appointments to government tribunals, boards and senior positions.

JUSTICE:

The Conservatives promise to:

– NOT decriminalize or legalize possession of marijuana.

– Consider Canadian police chiefs’ call for ticketing system for people possessing 30 grams of pot or less.

– Re-introduce previously tabled legislation to imprison the most brutal criminals for the rest of their natural lives and quickly deport hardcore foreign criminals. Also, to enact an amended version of the government’s previous mandatory-minimum sentencing law for gun crimes, which was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The NDP promises to:

– Immediately decriminalize marijuana, where users aren’t criminally prosecuted so nobody goes to jail for smoking a joint; party is open to considering legalization, but is calling for a commission to consult Canadians and instruct Parliament on how to carefully regulate non-medical use.

– Legalize pot and allow it to be sold – and taxed – in approved outlets. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says he expects people would not be allowed to buy the drug until they turn 18 or 19, depending on the province in which they live.

– Consider reviewing mandatory minimum sentences.

– Require judicial nominees to the Supreme Court of Canada to speak both official languages.

– Review the Young Offenders Act to ensure it is not an inducement to youth crime, but retain its core principle that youth should not be treated as hardened criminals.

– Increase penalties for domestic violence and ensure protection for the victims and survivors of domestic violence.

ABORIGINAL ISSUES

The Conservatives promise to:

– Review the 94 recommendations released in June by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which the Tory government established as part of the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

– Provide $500 million to building and renovating schools on reserves.

– Commit $567 million over five years for Aboriginal people and northerners to help build “stronger communities.”

– Budget promises include $215 to provide skills development and training for aboriginal peoples; $200 million to improve First Nations education and outcomes in schools; and $30.3 million to expand a plan that helps communities create their own land management laws to improve economic development on reserve lands.

The NDP promises to:

– Call a national inquiry into murdered and missing aboriginal women, and act on other recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

– Create a cabinet committee, chaired by the prime minister, to ensure federal government decisions respect treaty rights and Canada’s international obligations.

The Liberals promise to:

– Rebuild the relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians.

– Call a national inquiry into murdered and missing aboriginal women.

– Implement all 94 recommendations from Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

– Create more transparency and accountability with First Nations; pass legislation in consultation with First Nations people on implementing the reforms.

– Provide stable, predictable funding for First Nations education to close the “unacceptable gap” in learning outcomes for First Nations students.

The Greens promise to:

– Adopt recommendations from the TRC report, including a national inquiry into murdered and missing aboriginal women.

– Amend laws to recognize Indigenous approval of natural resource projects as equivalent in weight to federal government approval.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-parties-platforms/feed0stdPress Gallery dinnerHow to win an election: From debate strategies to attack ads, five things each party should focus onhttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/how-to-win-an-election-from-debate-strategies-to-attack-ads-five-things-each-party-should-focus-on
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Top five things Trudeau needs to do to regain Liberal momentum and win on Oct. 19

Justin Trudeau’s ascension to the Liberal leadership in April 2013 immediately revived the once-mighty party that had been left for dead after the 2011 election. Fuelled by Trudeau’s celebrity, family pedigree and sunny ways, the third party vaulted into the lead in opinion polls and stayed there for almost two years.

But as he heads into his first election campaign as leader, Trudeau’s star has dimmed, tarnished by a series of verbal gaffes and relentless Conservative attack ads that he’s “in over his head” and “just not ready” to govern.

Here are five things Liberal strategists believe Trudeau and his party need to do to regain momentum and win on Oct. 19.

1. Perform well in the leaders’ debates. That doesn’t mean Trudeau must score the proverbial knock-out punch or even best his rivals on points. But he does need to exceed expectations — which, thanks to the Tory attack ads, are low — and demonstrate that he’s a credible alternative to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In short, he needs to perform well enough to dispel the qualms the Tory ads have stoked.

2. Draw attention back to the substance of his economic policies. They were overshadowed immediately after they were unveiled in May by the stunning NDP upset in Alberta and the subsequent surge in NDP support federally.

Trudeau wants to replace the Conservative child benefit regime with a single, more generous, tax-free child benefit that Liberals say will give more to all parents with household incomes of less than $150,000, while giving less to wealthier households. He’s also promising to hike taxes on the wealthiest one per cent of Canadians and give an across-the-board tax cut to middle-income earners.

3. Contrast Trudeau’s policies with those of the NDP. Liberals need to make the case that Trudeau offers real, progressive change that will actually help those who need it most, as opposed to Mulcair, whom Liberals charge would perpetuate the Tory penchant for giving benefits equally to wealthy families who don’t need it.

That means emphasizing that Mulcair is opposed to hiking taxes on the wealthy, and would maintain the Conservative universal child care benefit and create one million, $15-a-day child care spaces that would be available to parents regardless of income.

4. Bring greater scrutiny to bear on Mulcair and the NDP. So far, Liberals grouse that the NDP has had pretty much a free ride as the Conservatives — intent on winning important swing ridings, particularly in and around Toronto, which are largely two-way Liberal-Conservative contests — concentrate all their firepower on Trudeau.

The Liberals can’t afford to spend the kind of money Conservatives are investing in attack ads. So they’ll have to find other means of drawing attention to what they maintain are Mulcair’s dangerous policies — allowing a bare majority referendum vote to trigger negotiations on Quebec secession, for instance — and unrealistic promises, such as abolishing the Senate.

5. Get out the vote. For all the attention paid to the “air war” — national leaders’ tours, debates, ads — Liberal strategists are convinced the party with the best campaign on the ground in each of the country’s 338 ridings will win. Liberals have not paid as much attention as they should have to the ground war during the last two elections and are determined not to make that mistake again. They’ve spent considerable time, energy and resources to train local campaign teams and modernize their ground game.

Philip Cheung for National Post NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, announces that Former New Democrat MP Olivia Chow will be seeking the NDP nomination for the Spadina-Fort York riding during a press conference in Toronto.

Five things NDP must do to sustain momentum all the way to Oct. 19

Tom Mulcair’s NDP is riding a wave of momentum into the election campaign. After trailing in third for most of the past two years, the federal party has surged into a slim lead in opinion polls, fuelled at least in part by the party’s stunning upset victory in Alberta in May.

Here are five things New Democrat strategists believe Mulcair and his party must do this time to keep the momentum going all the way to the Prime Minister’s Office.

1. Knock out the two pillars of Conservative support — Stephen Harper’s reputation for good economic stewardship and ethical governance. The Tory reputation on both fronts has taken a beating lately as the economy slipped into recession, the Senate expenses scandal continued to mushroom and Harper’s one-time point man on ethical issues, Dean Del Mastro, was photographed in handcuffs and leg irons after being convicted of cheating in the 2008 election.

The NDP has been siphoning off support from the Liberals, but strategists say they believe they need to shake loose “blue-orange switchers” from the Conservatives as well. That explains a recent NDP attack ad about Conservative ethical lapses, as well as Mulcair’s economy-focused tour of Conservative-held ridings in Ontario.

2. Make the case for change. Polls suggest roughly two-thirds of Canadians want a change in government. Mulcair has to consolidate and sustain the perception that the NDP is the only party that can deliver that change; forget about the Liberals.

And he has to persuade voters that the change he’s offering is not risky, as the Tories would have them believe, and is more appealing than four more years of Harper.

3. Completing the NDP plan. Mulcair has been unveiling chunks of his election platform for more than a year, promising to create a million $15-a-day child care spaces, cut the tax rate for small business and increase health transfers to the provinces by some $36 billion, among other things. Mulcair has promised that the platform will be fully costed, and to spell out precisely how he intends to find the money to pay for it all. That costing must be credible to dispel any qualms about the NDP’s credibility as fiscal managers.

4. Win over the Greater Toronto Area. The GTA remains, in the words of one strategist, “the last nut to crack.” The NDP is well-positioned to hang onto the majority of seats in Quebec and make gains in British Columbia, Regina and Edmonton. But it needs to see growth in the seat-rich GTA if Mulcair is going to win the election. And that means taking on the Tories.

In 2011, the Conservatives swept 32 of the 47 ridings in and around Toronto; the NDP took just eight, the Liberals seven. This time out, due to redistribution, there are 11 new ridings up for grabs, almost all in the suburbs where the Conservatives tend to do best.

5. Lower expectations about Mulcair’s performance in the leaders’ debates. Mulcair won the reputation of prosecutor-in-chief by relentlessly grilling Harper in the House of Commons over the Senate expenses scandal. His mastery of question period has raised expectations that he’ll wipe the floor with Harper and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau during the election debates.

But NDP strategists point out that leaders’ debates are different, and that Mulcair — like Trudeau — has never taken part in such debates before. Harper has lived through four previous sets of debates. Mulcair needs only to survive the debates in order to emerge a winner, strategists say.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangPrime Minister Stephen Harper holds a press conference after visiting Governor General David Johnston to dissolve parliament and trigger an election campaign at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Sunday, August 2, 2015.

Five keys to staying in power for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper

Harper has been prime minister for nearly a decade, giving him by far the most experience of his political rivals. But as the campaign for the Oct. 19 election gets underway, the Conservative road to victory is far from smooth.

Here are five key things Conservative insiders say Harper needs to focus on if he’s to win another mandate in October:

1. Acknowledge he’s fighting a war on two fronts. Harper must set his sights on the New Democrats, who have surged past the Liberals in opinion polls, and do it soon. The Tories have found success branding Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau as a politician who’s not ready to lead. They must now brand the NDP as a party with little experience managing the economy, particularly in the key strategic provinces of Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. Quebec has never had a provincial NDP government and it’s been a long time since New Democrats have held power in B.C. or Ontario.

2. Focus on strategic areas of the electoral map. The Tories need to emerge victorious from the heated skirmish in the Toronto area — in a big way. The party must also make a strong push in B.C., especially in suburban Vancouver. Some Tories believe the party should put a lot of energy into Quebec, which has proven to be challenging turf in the past. The party sees opportunity in the Quebec City area and surrounding regions. Others recommend putting the bulk of Tory efforts elsewhere — arguing it will never be a Quebec party — and hope for the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Quebecois split the vote.

3. Hammer home the fact that Harper has more experience than his rivals. One insider wants the party to pay attention to polls that suggest Harper is seen as competent and capable. He needs to talk up his record in office, particularly on what the party sees as priority areas for Canadians: national security, jobs and the economy. He must continue to tell voters the struggling economy is affected by external turbulence around the world and that a lot of factors are outside of Canada’s control. The party must reinforce the idea that a steady hand at the wheel is necessary in uncertain times, not a change at the top.

4. Give them more Harper. More than ever, Harper is the face of the party following the departures of prominent Conservatives across the country, including Peter MacKay, John Baird and James Moore. The Tories will have to make Harper more accessible to the public in ways other than stump speeches. Some insiders want to see women such as Lisa Raitt, Rona Ambrose and Michelle Rempel front and centre during the campaign. Others say the party has a strong backbench filled with capable future stars, noting that turnover in the ranks is a natural process.

5. Run a tight campaign and keep the troops motivated. The Tories have demonstrated an ability to run well-executed campaigns and its electoral machine will have to do it again to win. To keep campaign workers energized, the party will look to remind them of Harper’s impact on the Conservative movement and that he has delivered on most of his 2011 promises — as well as warn what could happen if one of the other guys wins.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand Green Party Leader Elizabeth May speaks at the Annual Parliamentary National Press Gallery, in Gatineau, Quebec Saturday May 9, 2015 in Ottawa.

Five keys to success for the Green party

1. Get past the environment. To make a breakthrough, it’s important for the party to make it clear to voters that they are about more than just environmental issues. Some might still see the Greens as a one-note party. So it needs to stress economic and social policies in addition to positions on climate change and other environmental issues.

2. Persuade voters the best government for Canadians is a minority. In a tight race, some voters are likely to be reluctant to vote for a party that has no real chance of forming government. But the Greens want to win enough seats in order to be in a position to sway the balance of power in a minority Parliament — using that influence to push its policies.

3. Take advantage of the debate. Green party Leader Elizabeth May will be alongside the three major party leaders in the Aug. 6 debate organized by Maclean’s magazine — an early opportunity to capture a share of the national spotlight, as well as the attention of voters.

5. Leverage online and social media. With less money to spend on traditional media advertising and whistle-stop tours, the party will need to be creative. That means turning to the Internet — especially social media platforms — to connect with potential voters.

Stephen Harper is off and running — and Tom Mulcair is right behind him.

The NDP leader kicked off his party’s election campaign — the “Campaign for Change” — across the river from Parliament Hill just moments after his Conservative rival asked Governor General David Johnson to dissolve Parliament.

“I believe that governing is about priorities,” Mulcair said from an outdoor balcony in Gatineau, Que., overlooking the Ottawa River, the iconic Peace Tower looming in the distance.

“Mr. Harper’s priority is to spend millions of dollars on self-serving government advertising and an early election call. My priority is to invest in affordable, quality child care to help families and the economy.”

He then proceeded to rattle off a number of areas in which the NDP accuses the Conservatives of falling dramatically short of what Canadians expect from their government, and how New Democrats would do better.

On everything from protecting and restoring the environment and providing fair treatment to Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples to creating jobs and doing away with political corruption, the NDP is the better choice, Mulcair said.

“In each of the last three elections, Conservatives have been convicted of wrongdoing. Some of been sent to jail. One-third of the Senate is under police investigation. I believe this must change once and for all.”

The party’s “number 1 priority” will be to “kick-start the economy and get Canadians back to work,” he added.

Mulcair, whose popularity in recent public opinion polls suggests all three main parties have a shot at forming a government after Oct. 19, said he is focused on doing exactly that.

In 2011, New Democrats achieved historic electoral success, thanks largely to gains made in Quebec under the leadership of Mulcair’s predecessor, Jack Layton.

Political observers say the NDP’s greatest challenge will be to translate its current levels of support into more seats in the House of Commons.

Some of the main planks of the NDP platform include a promise to create a million $15-a-day child care spaces across Canada and a $15 minimum wage.

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Welcome to the 2015 federal election. Here is your quick guide to some key data:

87: Percentage of ridings whose boundaries have changed in the 2015 election

43: Number of languages in which Elections Canada is providing voter information

$25 million: What each party is allowed to spend for a five-week campaign (this increases for a longer campaign – to as much as $50 million depending on the length of the campaign)

$1,500: Maximum an individual can contribute to federal parties each year

$5,000: Maximum a candidate can contribution to his or her own campaign

12: Number of hours voting stations are open on election day (Oct. 19)

4: Number of days when advance polls will be open

61.1: Voter turnout percentage in the 2011 federal election

73.1: Voter turnout percentage in the 1867 election

37: Minimum number of days required by law for a federal election

$375 million: Elections Canada’s rough estimate of how much the 2015 election would cost if it were a 37-day campaign

$291 million: Cost of 2011 federal election

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-2015-election-by-the-numbers/feed0stda-voter-casts-a-ballot-in-the-2011-federal-election-in-toron1Federal election explainer: The prime minister just ‘dropped the writ.’ But what does that mean?http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/what-does-drop-the-writ-mean
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/what-does-drop-the-writ-mean#commentsSun, 02 Aug 2015 14:44:55 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=847118

Let’s get this cleared up now: The prime minister doesn’t “drop the writ.” The prime minister has no such function – and no writs, either. And “dropping” is just the wrong word.

Q. Well, what is this writ business, then?

A. This piece of popular, uniquely Canadian but misused electoral language is snappy shorthand for the prime minister visiting Rideau Hall and handing the Governor General a letter recommending dissolution of, in this case, the 41st Parliament. The official name for it is an Instrument of Advice.

Unless something goes terribly wrong, the Governor General takes the prime minister’s advice and signs the instrument, ending all business in the Senate and the House of Commons (but not government). Under exceptional circumstances, the Crown can reject the advice (which happened in the 1926 King-Byng Affair, but that’s another story).

Q. So the Governor General drops the writ?

A. Nope. Even Canada’s representative of the head of state doesn’t have any writs to drop.

Instead, in the name of Her Majesty The Queen, he signs three additional documents: a proclamation under the Great Seal of Canada formally dissolving the old Parliament; a cabinet order addressed to the chief electoral officer requesting the issuance of writs of general election on a fixed date; and a pro-forma proclamation setting the date for the return to Ottawa of a new Parliament. The formalities usually take just minutes.

Q. So where do we get this phrase?

A. The idea for a writ of election to form a Parliament can be traced to 13th century England and the principles sowed by Magna Carta.

Montreal language expert Howard Richler, who has researched Canadian election etymologies, says the sense of the word “drop” is idiomatic as in “drop a line” or “drawing” up a document.

“Originally the term was ‘draw up the writ’ (still used in some Commonwealth countries) but I guess ‘drop the writ’ sounds much more exciting. Any idiomatic verb doesn’t have to be logical,” he said in an interview.

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Issuing writs falls to the chief electoral officer and starts the election timetable. These formal written orders are sent to returning officers across the country instructing them to hold an election in that riding (another electoral locution with a commonly misunderstood etymology) to choose a Member of Parliament for that particular district, 338 in all for the coming general election.

The writ specifies the day by which the names of candidates must be entered into nomination, sets a polling date and a date on which the writ, with the name of the successful candidate noted on the back, is to be returned to the chief electoral officer. Writs cannot be issued or dated later than the 36th day before polling day, making the minimum length of a federal election campaign 36 days.

After the election day polls close and the ballots are counted and verified, the returning officer completes a form on the back of the writ, declaring a particular candidate elected. The returning officer then returns the writ to the chief electoral officer. The name of each candidate declared elected is published in the Canada Gazette.

Q. That’s a lot of writs.

A. For sure. Writs have been issued in 41 general elections since Confederation. Archival copies are stored at Library and Archives Canada, a tangible piece of the nation’s constitutional monarchy – writ large.

OTTAWA – Stephen Harper will be at Rideau Hall Sunday morning, where he’s expected to trigger an 11-week election campaign in advance of an Oct. 19 vote.

An advisory from the Prime Minister’s Office says Harper is scheduled to meet with Governor General David Johnston at 10 a.m. ET.

If Harper indeed asks Johnston to dissolve Parliament, it would touch off a rare summer campaign that promises to stretch nearly three months – the longest in more than a century.

It’s also expected to be the costliest campaign ever, as well as the first in which three parties all have a legitimate shot at winning – a sure formula for a vicious, no-holds-barred battle.

Harper stands to become the first prime minister since Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1908 to win four consecutive elections.

He’s expected to get the Conservative campaign underway at a rally later Sunday in Montreal, while Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau will be in Vancouver to attend that city’s Pride parade.

So far, the New Democrats have said little about their plans, other than on Friday, when they made it clear they would not take part in any leaders’ debates that didn’t include Harper.

Such an unusually long campaign would allow parties and their candidates to spend more than double the spending limits of $25 million and $100,000, respectively, that would have applied for a minimum 37-day campaign.

Having amassed vastly more money than any other party, the increased spending limits give the Conservative party and its candidates a huge advantage over their more impoverished rivals.

It’s been clear for weeks how the ruling party intends to use its financial advantage: to carpet bomb the air waves with attack ads.

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Conservative ads trashing Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau as “just not ready” to be prime minister have been ever-present on radio and television for more than two months already. Liberal insiders admit they’ve been effective, contributing to the Liberals’ slow decline in the polls to third place from their front-running status over the previous two years.

Late Friday, the Conservatives suddenly turned their sights on NDP Leader Tom Mulcair with similar attack ads depicting him as an unethical, opportunistic “career politician.” Having helped drive Liberal support to the NDP, they’ve now evidently decided they need to blunt Mulcair’s momentum at the outset of the campaign.

The shifting targets of the Tory ads reflect the tricky two-front war facing the governing party.

At a time when the economy has tanked and polls suggest two-thirds of the electorate are looking for a change, the Conservatives risk driving change seekers to coalesce behind the NDP if they attack the Liberals too hard, and vice versa. They’ll attempt to strike a balance, attacking both and warning that the economy is too fragile to risk putting it in the spendthrift hands of either Mulcair or Trudeau.

But Mulcair and Trudeau also face two-front wars – with each other as much as with Harper. Each will be attempting to prove that his party is the vehicle that can defeat the Conservatives and provide real change. And in doing so, they’ll be fighting not just to win the election but, potentially, for the very survival of their respective parties.

Should Harper win a minority, the two opposition parties will come under pressure to form a coalition to snatch power from him. Should he win another majority, they’ll come under pressure to merge outright and stop splitting the progressive vote.

In either scenario, the opposition party that emerges strongest on Oct. 19 will have the upper hand; the weaker party could face possible extinction.

On May 18, 2004, when the Supreme Court of Canada rejected Stephen Harper’s challenge to limits on election spending by secret lobby groups, the prime minister was spitting mad.

“That these organizations would swamp political parties that are subsidized to the tunes of millions of dollars is actually nonsense,” he said, and vowed to one day repeal the unjust law.

He had worked on the challenge for three years on behalf of the National Citizens Coalition, sitting in courtrooms, working with lawyers, giving interviews, arguing the law violated the Charter right to freedom of expression.

The limits were brought in by Jean Chrétien, who wanted to prevent conservative businesspeople from secretly funding attack ads on politicians they dislike, like, for example, him.

These days, the unions secretly fund attack ads against Harper. Do you suppose he is defending their right to freedom of expression?

On July 22, Kory Teneycke, Harper’s principal adviser, sent a fundraising email, the first of a series, warning of “secretive third party groups.”

“Don’t be fooled. They are backed by millions of dollars from big unions and corporations, and are staffed by former Liberal and NDP operatives. And their sole purpose is to attack Prime Minister Harper and trick Canadians with mistruths and false claims.”

Imposing a limit on ads from “secret big-dollar interest groups” is one justification the Conservatives are using for calling a 11-week election campaign, which will let Harper run more of his own attack ads.

He can do that because he unilaterally changed the election law, creating a loophole to let the spending limit go from $21 million in 2011 to $54 million this time.

Every dollar is subsidized twice, first with a 75-cent tax credit for donors as the money is raised, then with a 50-cent rebate for parties as it is spent.

This law — which also will make it harder for many Canadians to vote — was passed over the strenuous objections of the opposition, community groups and election officials.

During hearings on the new law, Yves Côté, commissioner of Canada Elections, testified moving his office to the Public Prosecution Service was not “a step in the right direction.”

Too bad. His office was moved. Harper also restricted what Côté can report to the public about election crimes, and did not give him what he asked for: power to compel testimony.

In his recent annual report, Côté complained investigations had to be closed “because of individuals who — despite clear indications that they had information relevant to our investigations — refused to co-operate with us.”

One is the Guelph robocalls probe, which ended in the conviction of Michael Sona, who was 22 on May 2, 2011. Sona has served 13 of 270 days in Maplehurst Correctional Complex for his role in the scheme to trick voters.

Harper’s former parliamentary secretary, Dean Del Mastro, has served one of 30 days in jail for exceeding the spending limit in 2008.

Harper is responsible for building an electoral machine that has had two men jailed. He may be aghast at that and determined to ensure such a thing never happens again. I don’t know.

But I know two men who should be sleeping under their own roofs, with their families, tending to their cows and whatnot, instead have had to sleep in prison cells.

A federal election is an extraordinary event, the richest manifestation of our national democracy. Over the next 11 weeks, hundreds of thousands of people will pound signs and knock on doors, attend debates, volunteer on phone banks, discussing, usually in a friendly way, how we ought to govern ourselves, who will do a better job of running the country.

I hope that nobody does anything during this election that will get them locked up.

OTTAWA — The Conservatives are finally training their sights on NDP Leader Tom Mulcair just as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is about to plunge the country into an 11-week election on Sunday.

After carpet-bombing the airwaves for weeks with ads asserting that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is “just not ready,” the ruling party is poised to start the official campaign with two new television ads targeting Mulcair.

The ads portray the NDP leader as an unethical opportunist who looks out for himself at taxpayers’ expense, a “career politician” the country can’t afford.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhs_Wvo5ryk&w=560&h=315]

The new ads feature the same group of supposedly ordinary Canadians perusing resumes who trash Trudeau’s work history in the ubiquitous “just not ready” ads, only this time it’s Mulcair’s resume that’s being dissected.

The Tories have been running the Trudeau attack ads relentlessly, long after opinion polls suggested Liberal support had sagged into third place, largely to the benefit of the NDP which heads into the campaign with a slim lead over the Conservatives.

Liberal strategists say they believe the Tory obsession with Trudeau reflects the fact that the Liberals remain the biggest threat to Conservatives in the crucial suburban swing ridings ringing Toronto, where all three parties agree the Oct. 19 election will be won or lost.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c86-9HitWg0&w=560&h=315]

However, the Conservatives have apparently decided it’s time to burst the NDP’s bubble, although it remains to be seen whether they’ll run the anti-Mulcair ads with the same frequency as the anti-Trudeau ads.

The Conservatives offered a “sneak peek” at their new anti-Mulcair ads in a fundraising email missive sent out to supporters late Friday.

In the email, Tory campaign spokesman Kory Teneycke asserts that the NDP “would wreck our economy,” that Mulcair’s “dangerous schemes would mean higher taxes for all Canadians and would drive us back into deficit.”

Yet the ads the email is promoting don’t mention the economy or Mulcair’s policies. They focus squarely and personally on Mulcair.

The panellists perusing the NDP leader’s resume note that Mulcair was first elected to Quebec’s National Assembly in 1994 — “as a Liberal,” one of the group says in a shocked voice.

Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press; Sean Kilpatrick/CP; Adrian Wyld/CPConservative leader Stephen Harper, NDP leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau have been using the long lead up to the federal election to drop policy announcements.

“Hmm, he’s no fresh face,” comments another.

One ad recounts that the NDP has been “caught breaking the rules by directing $2.7 million of taxpayers’ dollars to their political offices.” And it recalls a decades-old libel suit in which Mulcair was ordered by a judge to pay $100,000 “for malicious and abusive behaviour” — a tab the ad asserts he wanted taxpayers to pay.

“Politicians like him never care when it’s our money,” one man grouses.

The other ad recounts how Mulcair, as a provincial politician, was once offered a bribe by a “disgraced Quebec mayor” which he didn’t accept but also didn’t report to police for 17 years. It also claims that Mulcair joined the federal NDP only “after he cashed out his $135,000 severance,” to which he was entitled after retiring from provincial politics.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was prepared to make a triumphant announcement Friday night about Canada joining the largest free-trade zone in history, and use that as a launchpad into an anticipated weekend election call.

But the planned event in Parliament’s Centre Block never happened.

That’s because a few thousand kilometres away, negotiators couldn’t close the deal. Ministers from 12 countries left Hawaii without a Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty, and without a date set for their next meeting.

Now the Conservative government finds itself in a rare position: instead of campaigning on a free-trade deal, it might have to negotiate one in the midst of a national election.

International Trade Minister Ed Fast was asked about the impending Canadian vote and whether his government would be able to participate in the next round of talks.

“When our partners reconvene, and we trust that will be very soon, Canada will continue to be at the table as a constructive partner — with a sincere desire to complete these negotiations.” Fast told a Maui news conference Friday.

“Canada came to Maui ready to conclude a TPP. We were active, constructive players at the table.”

The countries had arrived in Hawaii last week amid expectations they might close out a free-trade agreement covering 40 per cent of the world’s economy.

They got closer — but couldn’t cross the finish line.

“We have made significant progress,” said Michael Froman, the head of the U.S. delegation.

Agriculture is one of the final sticking points — which participants describe as a normal phenomenon in trade negotiations, given the political sensitivity around farming and food.

In recent months, other countries have singled out Canada for having taken a hard line on allowing foreign competition into its tightly controlled dairy sector.

But one trade expert at the meetings said a 12-party negotiation is too complex to be boiled down to one issue and one country. Canadian dairy is just one piece of a bigger puzzle, Alan Wolff said.

“It’s highly interdependent,” said Wolff, a former U.S. negotiator who now leads the American National Foreign Trade Council, a commercial association.

“The question is, who moves? Canada has to take in some more dairy… Japan has to take in some more dairy. The U.S. has to take in some more sugar.”

At the same time the U.S. has a counter-demand — that other countries increase protections for cutting-edge pharmaceuticals against copycat versions. It wants countries to adopt its 12-year exclusivity period for new biologics products; Canada offers eight years and some countries offer virtually no protection.

The question is, who moves? Canada has to take in some more dairy… Japan has to take in some more dairy. The U.S. has to take in some more sugar.

So the stakes of this deal would extend beyond grocery stores, farms, research labs and pharmacies — where prices could rise or plunge, depending on the product.

They could also be felt at ballot boxes around the world.

Canada is the first TPP country facing a general election — but others have looming political deadlines.

In the U.S., with presidential primaries beginning in five months, Hillary Clinton is facing pressure from her Democratic party’s left to oppose the TPP and has avoided comment so far. Peru has an election next year. So does Japan, where a drop in recent polls has left Prime Minister Shinzo Abe politically vulnerable.

Big free-trade deals have collapsed before, under the weight of delay and added political pressure. It happened to global talks at the World Trade Organization, and to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

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“That’s the risk (with delays),” said Wolff, who negotiated U.S. access to the Japanese market in the 1970s, helped draft early U.S. fast-track trade legislation, and worked on the landmark GATT treaty.

Dairy has long been politically sensitive in Canada. At least one Canadian negotiator of the original free-trade agreement with the U.S. said he wished they’d dumped supply management in the 1980s, but it was too politically difficult.

Any major opening of that sector could produce tension between parts of the country with dairy farms — especially in rural Quebec and Ontario — against big population centres, where consumers might like more options at the grocery store, and enjoy the idea of competition lowering prices for cheese and yogurt.

However, the Harper government agreed to open the market slightly with the recent Canada-Europe free-trade deal, and had apparently made another overture this week. But New Zealand’s representative in Hawaii described a Canadian agriculture offer as so insignificant as to be unworthy of discussion.

Harper has said Canada can’t be left out of this agreement.

If it’s going to happen anytime in the next two and a half months, however, he’ll have to negotiate it from the campaign trail.

John Bitove, a successful Canadian businessman and philanthropist of Macedonian origin, passed away peacefully July 30 in Toronto at the age of 87.

Bitove was a leading entrepreneur in the food industry. He operated many successful restaurants, including outlets of casual dining chains Big Boy and Roy Rogers in the 1970s. He soon ventured into larger projects when he obtained the catering rights to Toronto’s SkyDome, known today as the Rogers Centre, and Toronto’s Pearson airport. Later, he merged existing companies to form Bitove Corp., at the time one of the largest dining and catering operations in Canada.

Outside his business endeavours, Bitove was passionate about his philanthropic work. This included funding the Dotsa Bitove Wellness Academy, named in honour of his wife, for people living with memory-related disorders.

“In the last couple of years of his life it was almost his sole dedication to help people with Alzheimer’s,” said their son, John Bitove Jr.

Bitove was also driven by a deep sense of patriotism for Macedonia and its people. In 1991, he organized, raised funds for and led an international campaign to have the country recognized as an independent state. His ties to his heritage made him a generous supporter of the Macedonian community locally and abroad.

‘In the last couple of years of his life it was almost his sole dedication to help people with Alzheimer’s’

Bitove married American-Macedonian Dotsa in 1949, and they spent 67 years together. They had five children — Vonna, Nick, Tom, John Jr. and Jordan — and 16 grandchildren.

Bitove and his wife both had relatives among the 30,000 Macedonian child refugees who were displaced as a result of the Second World War. In 1984, the couple organized and paid for a reunion that took place in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, enabling them to meet relatives there.

“He realized that some of his relatives had been persecuted after the war … so he dedicated part of his life, in addition to business and family, to trying to make a difference,” Bitove Jr. said.

Born in Toronto in 1928 to Macedonian parents, Nikola and Vana, Bitove started his career in the food industry at an early age by helping in his father’s butcher shop. His persistent work ethic would lead him to becoming one of the most successful businessmen of Macedonian origin in the world.

In 1989, Bitove was made a member of the Order of Canada. He also received numerous awards, including the first United Macedonian Diaspora Lifetime Achievement Award and the September 8th Medal of Honor, the highest merit from the president of the Republic of Macedonia.

‘Those two Blue Jays World Series were probably some of the happiest moments of his life’

Bitove Jr., also a successful businessman who founded the Toronto Raptor basketball team, remembers his father as a “lover of life” and huge sports fan.

“With the involvement with the SkyDome, those two Blue Jays World Series were probably some of the happiest moments of his life,” he said.

But despite all his financial success, Bitove’s greatest accomplishment was his family, his son added.

“He was most proud of his family and watching his children, and in particular his grandchildren, live a good life, treat people with respect, and be successful — in whatever the meaning of that word is, not just business.”

OTTAWA — The NDP says Tom Mulcair won’t participate in any leaders’ debates during the election campaign if they don’t include Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In laying down that condition, the NDP has likely driven the final nail in the coffin of the traditional debates hosted by a consortium of the country’s largest broadcasters.

The Conservative party has already ruled out Harper’s participation in the consortium debates — one French, one English, proposed to take place less than two weeks before the Oct. 19 vote.

And unless Harper changes his mind, now Mulcair won’t take part either.

It’s doubtful the consortium will press ahead with its proposal without two of the three main party leaders.

Philip Cheung for National Post/FileTom Mulcair's NDP may have driven the final nail in the coffin of the traditional debates hosted by a consortium of the country’s largest broadcasters.

Green party leader Elizabeth May reacted furiously Friday to the NDP’s debate conditions, accusing Mulcair of colluding with Harper to kill off the debates that would have the widest audience. And she said it’s all aimed at keeping her off centre stage throughout the campaign.

“This stinks to high heaven,” she said in an interview.

“Tom Mulcair has just killed the best opportunity that Canadian voters had to get accountability from a sitting prime minister from opposition party leaders in the forum that reaches the most Canadians.”

According to May, all opposition parties agreed to stick together supporting the consortium debates, in hopes of eventually pressuring Harper to show up or face having the Conservatives represented by an empty podium. The NDP’s “shameful betrayal” has now let Harper off the hook, May said.

CP/FileElizabeth May: A “shameful betrayal.”

So far, Harper has agreed to participate in only four debates, starting with one hosted by Maclean’s magazine next Thursday.

The other three, scheduled throughout the fall, are being hosted by Quebec television network TVA, the Munk Debates and the Globe and Mail-Google Canada.

“Thanks to Mulcair’s doublecross,” May said she will now be allowed to take part in only the Maclean’s debate. She has not been invited to the others.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said the fact Mulcair is considering dropping out of the consortium debates shows he’s “behaving a little too much like Mr. Harper, for the Canadians who want change.”

The only scheduled French-language debate, hosted by TVA, won’t reach francophones all across the country, Trudeau added.

“If Mr. Mulcair decides to pull out of the debates we will have only one debate in French across the country — and it won’t even be available across the country, because TVA doesn’t go everywhere.”

The Conservatives have said Harper will participate in five debates but has not so far identified the fifth.

The NDP said Friday that Mulcair would participate in an equal number of French and English debates. But that would require either Harper agreeing to participate in two more debates or Mulcair pulling out of at least one of the four already agreed upon.

In an apparent attempt to force a speedy decision, the NDP set a deadline, saying it will consider debate proposals until 5 p.m. ET on Aug. 7.

The Canadian Press

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